Crews prepping Clark-Shaw for Murphy students dislocated by tornado

MOBILE, Alabama -- About 30 portable classrooms are now positioned in a grid behind Clark-Shaw magnet school in west Mobile, awaiting the arrival Monday of students from the tornado-struck Murphy High.

Even more – some white, some gray, none very attractive - are in a staging area in the front parking lot, or are being trucked in from a local business and Florida.

“It’s not a problem at all for them to be coming here,” Clark-Shaw Principal Dianne McWain said today, as construction crews were all over her campus.

Inside, boxes of classroom supplies lined the hallways as Clark-Shaw teachers are consolidating into just the two-story main building to make room.

Outside, huge trucks were bringing the portables back in two halves to be put together. Orange paint marked spots in the gravel where the portables would be stationed, leaving narrow walk-ways between them so the students can change classes.

Murphy’s students will get a newer, two-story wing of the school, known now as the “back building,” which has about 21 classrooms. And, when all the work is done, they’ll have about 60 portables.

“It’s all going to be fine,” McWain said. “I’m glad we can help them out. I know they would step up and do this for us, too.”

The students will be kept completely separate, McWain said, echoing some concerns that her middle-school parents have expressed.

Murphy students will arrive onto campus at 8:30 a.m., which is about an hour after Clark-Shaw’s students do, and dismiss an hour later, at 3:30 p.m.

They will have separate lunch waves, with Clark-Shaw wrapping up at 12:07 p.m., and Murphy’s students coming into the cafeteria after that.

Murphy will have its own restrooms and even administrative office out back. The high-schoolers won’t be in the gymnasium at the same time as the middle schoolers.

Though school will start for the rest of Mobile County Thursday, Murphy and Clark-Shaw students won’t resume until Monday.

The Murphy students will phase in, one grade at a time, with seniors coming Monday, juniors Tuesday, sophomores Wednesday and freshmen Thursday. Each class will have an orientation session at 8:30 a.m. on its designated day to learn about the campus.

An informational meeting for Murphy parents is being held at 7 p.m. tonight at the Mobile Civic Center. And another will be held Thursday at 7 p.m. at Clark-Shaw for the middle school parents.

This was supposed to be a regular teacher workday. Instead, it was moving day.

Maintenance crews did the bulk of the boxing up and delivering. But the teachers were on campus, unpacking and getting their classrooms in order.

Having just been designated as “floating teachers,” Millette and Henning won’t have their own rooms. They'll move to where their students are.

Henning said she knows this may sound contrite, but Clark-Shaw teachers have been through changes before. The magnet school moved to its current location from Chickasaw in 2009, and has been revamped since then from a school with grades 4-8 to 6-8.

“We’re adaptable,” Henning said. “Our priority is to make this transition as smooth as possible for our students. I’m more than confident that the quality of education will be the same as it was, and this will all work out.”

Seventh-grade students will come back to lessons on poetry and William Shakespeare, the teachers said.

Clark-Shaw is a magnet school for grades six through eight focusing on math and science.

Murphy students won’t drive on the Clark-Shaw campus, McWain said. Officials are still working on a plan where the Murphy students could park their cars someplace and be shuttled to Clark-Shaw.

The Mobile County school system is renting the portable classrooms, and that cost should be covered by insurance, officials have said. These portables are a little stronger than the typical portables that are on local school campuses.

At Murphy, five of the six portable classrooms were demolished by the tornado.